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Next to Normal
Next to Normal is a stage musical. Cast *Alice Ripley - Diana Goodman *Brian d'Arcy James - Dan Goodman *Jennifer Damiano - Natalie Damiano *Aaron Tveit - Gabe *Asa Somers - Dr. Madden/Dr. Fine *Adam Chanler-Berat - Henry Plot Suburban mother Diana Goodman waits up late for her curfew-challenged son, and attempts to comfort her anxious and overachieving daughter, Natalie. In early morning, their son returns, and Dan, Diana's husband, rises to help prepare the family for the day. Everything appears normal until Dan and Natalie realize that the sandwiches Diana is making are covering every surface in the kitchen. As Dan helps the disoriented Diana, the kids hurry off to school. Natalie escapes to the refuge of the piano practice room and is interrupted by Henry, a classmate who likes to listen to her play and who is clearly interested in her. Over the ensuing weeks Diana makes a series of visits to her doctor, while Dan waits in the car outside questioning how to cope with his own depression. Diana has suffered from bipolar disorder and psychosis for the past sixteen years. Her doctor continually adjusts her medications, with various side effects, until she says she doesn't feel anything, at which point he declares her "stable". Natalie and Henry grow closer until one day he professes his love for her and they kiss for the first time. Diana, witnessing this, worries her best years may be behind her. With her son's encouragement, she flushes away her medication. A few weeks later, Dan looks forward to dinner with his family, to which Henry has been invited, much to Natalie's dismay. He happily recounts how Diana has been energetic and in a great mood for the past weeks, but when Diana emerges with a cake singing "Happy Birthday" to her son, Dan and Natalie are devastated. Dan carefully reminds her that their son died sixteen years ago, when he was an infant. Dan mentions a return to the doctor, but Diana refuses, saying Dan can't possibly hurt the way she does. Dan tries to coax her into trusting him while their son tries to convince his mother to listen to him instead. In her room, Natalie vents her anger to Henry and then refuses Diana's halfhearted apology as her brother watches and taunts her. A few days later, Diana starts work with Doctor Madden, attempting a drug-free treatment. As her son tries to assert his presence, Dan and Natalie doubt the sessions are helping. After an argument, Natalie begins experimenting with her mother's old prescription medications. Doctor Madden proposes hypnosis to help Diana discover the roots of her trauma. The therapy is emotionally draining and Dan worries that it is too much of a strain on her mental health, while Natalie bombs an important piano recital when she realizes her mother is not present. Finally, Diana agrees it's time to let her son go. Diana goes home to clean out her son's things, pausing to listen to a music box. Her son dances with her and invites her to 'go away with him'. She attempts suicide and is hospitalized. At the hospital, Diana lies sedated and restrained, with self-inflicted gashes to her wrists. Doctor Madden explains to Dan that ECT is the standard course of treatment for drug-resistant patients who are at a high risk of suicide. Dan goes home to clean up after Diana and barely avoids a breakdown. The next day, Doctor Madden proposes the treatment to Diana, and she reacts angrily, comparing the treatment to the lobotomies performed in the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Dan arrives and manages to convince her that it may be their last hope. Diana receives a series of ECT treatments over two weeks. Meanwhile, Natalie explores clubs and drugs, seemingly sharing a hallucination with her mother. Diana returns home from the hospital, but she has lost nineteen years of memory. At school, Henry confronts Natalie about her avoiding him, and invites her to the spring formal dance. Dan and Diana visit Doctor Madden, who assures them some memory loss is normal and encourages Dan to use photos, mementos, and the like to help Diana recover. Dan gathers the family to do so, with minor success. When Natalie pulls the music box from a pile of keepsakes, he whisks it away, leaving Diana puzzled. Her son appears, unseen, while Diana tells Dan there's something she's desperate to remember that's just beyond her reach. When Henry arrives looking for Natalie, Diana pauses, studying his face and asking his age. He reminds her of someone. Unnerved, Henry hurries up to Natalie's room, to convince her to join him at the dance the next night. Diana returns to Doctor Madden, and he asks Diana about memories of her son, not knowing that Dan has purposely avoided mentioning him. Doctor Madden suggests she further explore her history and talk more with her husband. Diana goes home and searches through the boxes of keepsakes, finding the music box. Dan tries to stop her, but the memories of their baby son rush back. When Diana confesses remembering her son as a teenager, and demands to know his name, Dan refuses and instead insists they need to return for more treatment. Henry arrives to pick up Natalie, who has dressed for the dance, just in time for both of them to witness an agitated Dan grab the music box from Diana's hands and smash it to pieces on the floor. Diana confronts Dan, wondering why he perseveres after how much trouble she's given, while upstairs, Natalie asks Henry the same question. Dan answers, echoed by Henry, both vowing to stay steadfast. As both couples embrace, Diana and Dan's son reappears, which sends Diana running to Doctor Madden. Diana asks Doctor Madden what can be done if the medicine won't work. She realizes that it is not her brain that's hurting, but her soul. Madden assures her relapse is common, and suggests more ECT. Diana refuses. Doctor Madden urges her to continue treatment for her chronic, deadly disease. She thanks him and leaves. Natalie, waiting outside, is distressed to learn her mother has stopped the treatment. Diana explains, opening up to her daughter for the first time. She urges Natalie to go to the school dance, where Henry awaits to comfort and embrace her. Diana tells Dan she is leaving him, explaining he can't always be there to catch her. She needs to take a risk and deal with things on her own. She goes and leaves their son with Dan. As Dan wonders how she could have left him after he stood by her for so long, their son approaches and tells Dan he's not going anywhere. Dan grows more distraught until at last he faces the boy and calls him by his name for the first time: Gabe. Natalie comes home to find her father sitting alone in the dark, in tears. She comforts him and turns on the lights in the room, before assuring him the two of them will figure things out. Henry arrives to study. Natalie tells him Diana has gone to stay with her own parents. Dan visits Doctor Madden hoping to talk about Diana, but Madden instead offers him the name of another mental-health worker. Diana appears, alone and still hurting, but hopeful. Musical numbers *"Preprise - Let There Be Light" - Dan, Natalie and Diana *"Just Another Day" - Diana, Natalie, Gabe and Dan *"Perfect" - Natalie *"More... And More... And More" - Diana, Natalie, Gabe, Henry and Doctor Madden *"The Cavalry" - Dan *"Who's Crazy"/ "My Psychopharmacologist and I" - Dan, Doctor Fine and Diana *"Perfect For You" - Henry and Natalie *"I Miss the Mountains" - Diana *"It's Gonna Be Good" - Dan, Natalie, Henry and Diana *"He's Not Here" - Dan *"You Don't Know" - Diana *"I Am the One" - Dan, Gabe and Diana *"Superboy and the Invisible Girl" - Natalie, Diana and Gabe *"Open Your Eyes" - Doctor Madden *"I'm Alive" - Gabe *"Make Up Your Mind"/" Catch Me I'm Falling" - Doctor Madden, Diana, Dan, Natalie, Gabe and Henry *"I Dreamed a Dance" - Diana and Gabe *"There's a World" - Gabe *"In the Light" - Dan *"I've Been" - Dan and Gabe *"Didn't I See This Movie?" - Diana *"A Light in the Dark" - Dan and Diana *"Feeling Electric" - Diana, Gabe, Dan, Doctor Madden, Natalie and Henry ;Act II *"Growing Up Unstable" - Natalie *"Song of Forgetting" - Dan, Diana and Natalie *"Hey #1" - Henry and Natalie *"Seconds and Years" - Doctor Madden, Dan and Diana *"Getting Better" - Doctor Madden, Diana and Natalie *"Better Than Before" - Doctor Madden, Dan, Natalie and Diana *"Aftershocks" - Gabe *"Hey #2" - Henry and Natalie *"You Don't Know" (Reprise) - Diana and Doctor Madden *"Music Box" - Gabe *"How Could I Ever Forget?" - Diana and Dan *"It's Gonna Be Good" (Reprise) - Dan and Diana *"Why Stay?"/"A Promise" - Diana, Natalie, Dan and Henry *"I'm Alive" (Reprise) - Gabe *"The Break" - Diana *"Make Up Your Mind"/"Catch Me I'm Falling" (Reprise) - Doctor Madden, Diana and Gabe *"Everything" - Diana and Natalie *"Hey #3”/"Perfect For You" (Reprise) - Henry and Natalie *"So Anyway" - Diana *"I Am the One" (Reprise) - Dan and Gabe *"Finale (Let There Be Light)" - Diana, Dan, Natalie, Gabe, Henry, Doctor Madden Category: Stage musicals